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John Coleman hailed his Sligo Rovers side after they came away from Norway with a stunning 2-1 Europa League win over Rosenborg.

Goals from Alan Keane and Danny North put the Irish side in a strong position to qualify for the next round ahead of Thursday’s return leg in The Showgrounds.

Coleman, who took over as manager last month, said: “Give the players their dues, they executed the game plan that we had to the letter. We didn’t want to surrender too much possession to them, we didn’t want to surrender too much ground.

“We wanted to try and take the ball off them and at times we did. We wanted to pass the ball in midfield and a lot of the time we did.

“We had a chance after 30 seconds and then they’ve got on top and we’ve had to defend resolutely but that’s what they’re paid to do and they did it.

"And at times we were always dangerous on the counter and we felt that if we could have kept it a little bit longer at 2-0 possibly gaps would have opened to make it 3-0.

“[We’re] disappointed [with] 2-1 but if someone had offered that on the plane coming over you’d have snapped both their arms off so it’s all to play for now and the one thing is I know the Rovers fans will get behind us next Thursday.

“The Showgrounds will be bouncing and we’ve just got to turn in another performance.”